Friday, September 30, 2011

John Adams: No government can contain passions unbridled by religion

“We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
John Adams, Moral Hazard | The Charleston Tea Party Blog

New Rule Could Prolong Race for GOP Nomination | CNSnews.com

The Republicans have adopted a new rule designed to extend their nominating process this time around.

The rule limits the ability of candidates to win large numbers of delegates in primaries and caucuses held before April. Delegates must be awarded in proportion to the votes a candidate receives. States with winner-take-all rules will have to wait until April to hold their primaries.
New Rule Could Prolong Race for GOP Nomination | CNSnews.com

Video: Bill Buckley Jr on Drug Legalization

From Wikipedia:
George H. Nash, a historian of the modern American conservative movement, believed that Buckley was "arguably the most important public intellectual in the United States in the past half century... For an entire generation, he was the preeminent voice of American conservatism and its first great ecumenical figure."
So the man who defined modern conservatism was for the legalization of drugs? (And said George Bush wasn't a true conservative?)

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Video: Obama does more war than his predecessor

Video: Senator Obama vs. President Obama

Had he stuck to some of his positions, the president would have appealed to more constitutionalists and maybe even libertarians. What a shame.

College Students Reject Jesse Jackson's Ideas

Finally, someone spoke up against the reverend:
During the moments preceding Jackson’s speech and continuing into his introduction, students representing the OU organizations Students for Liberty and Young Americans for Liberty passed out fliers urging those in attendance to “help the poor; reject Jackson’s ideas.”

“We heard Jackson was coming to speak, and we thought, ‘Well, he’s kind of wrong about everything,’” said Nathan Kelly, a junior studying English education and a member of Students for Liberty.
And these kids are smart! They don't just offer something for nothing:
ederal assistance for poverty creates dependence on the government rather than effectively eliminating poverty, he said.

Instead, local initiatives that create ways for the poor to help themselves should be emphasized, Hennen said. These include abolishing minimum wage laws and removing barriers on trading.

“Instead of throwing money at the problem, Rev. Jackson could advocate a platform of individual empowerment and sound economic logic to mitigate the destructive forces of poverty,” the flier states. “We applaud Rev. Jackson’s crusade against poverty, but his remedies amount to a weak placebo.”
Students urge crowd at poverty rally to ‘reject Jackson’s ideas’ | The Post @ Ohio University

When Rick Perry drops out: Ron Paul could be second place, Republicans enter the Wild West - The Hill's Pundits Blog

Perry is a phony conservative who is not conservative. He is a pay-for-play politician who gobbled up Obama stimulus like a hound dog eating a bone, and created oceans of new government jobs in Texas while his big donors mysteriously received big government contracts. The Texas deficit ballooned and the Texas jobless rate doubled on Rick Perry's watch.
When Rick Perry drops out: Ron Paul could be second place, Republicans enter the Wild West - The Hill's Pundits Blog

Liberal Theologian Says “It’s not ‘class warfare,’ it’s Christianity”

Ha!
“Americans sharing more equally in the burden of pulling our country out of massive debt, and using tax revenue to stimulate the economy and create jobs isn’t ‘class warfare,’ it’s actually Christianity.”
Liberal Theologian Says “It’s not ‘class warfare,’ it’s Christianity”

Execution Looms for Iranian Pastor Who Refuses to Renounce His Christian Faith | CNSnews.com

I honestly teared up when thinking about this. American Christians have the luxury to openly worship or not, while this man ran a house church and had to operate in secret. We take it so lightly and I am inspired by men like this. If he is executed, he is going to meet the Lord.

Execution Looms for Iranian Pastor Who Refuses to Renounce His Christian Faith | CNSnews.com

Monday, September 26, 2011

Friday, September 23, 2011

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Video: Matt Welch Debates Ann Coulter on the Iraq War, TSA, and using Torture o...

Video: Peter Schiff on the Dismal Future of the U.S. Economy

Peter Schiff on the Problem with Democracy

The voters want something for nothing. That's the problem with democracy.
Peter Schiff, Peter Schiff on the Dismal Future of the U.S. Economy

GOP leaders pressure Fed to avoid further stimulus efforts - The Hill's On The Money

The letter, signed by House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), represents one of the strongest political challenges to the Fed in recent memory, and strong proof of the central role the Fed has now taken in the nation's economy.
GOP leaders pressure Fed to avoid further stimulus efforts - The Hill's On The Money

A Contrarian's take on American Exceptionalism

American exceptionalism is a quasi-Christian conservative religion with it's origins in social Darwinism and 19th century racist theology.

If it looks like a religion, smells like a religion, makes truth claims like a religion, then it's a religion.

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Brent Budowsky: Media giving Ron Paul the Pravda Treatment

And polls are starting to show Paul in third place, though many media covering the campaign, imitating Pravda under the Soviets, ignore Ron Paul in their insistence the Republican contest is a two-person race.
Ron Paul wins big in California. Major media ignore him (though Drudge does not) - The Hill's Pundits Blog

Interventionists Ready a Media Lynching for Ron Paul by Michael Scheuer

Mr. Paul, of course, never blamed the United States for the war the Islamists started and are now waging on the United States. What he did say is merely what is true beyond any credible challenge: Our growing number of Islamist enemies are motivated to attack us because of what the U.S. government does in the Muslim world and not because of how Americans live and think here at home. Mr. Paul bravely and clearly delivers this essential message to U.S. voters, and as long as he tells this truth he will receive the venom and slander of the above mentioned people and organizations.
Interventionists Ready a Media Lynching for Ron Paul by Michael Scheuer

Schiff: I was fined because I hired too many people

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Thomas Sowell on Liberal Thinking

“Liberals seem to assume that, if you don't believe in their particular political solutions, then you don't really care about the people that they claim to want to help”
Thomas Sowell, Think Exist

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

How the Government Can Create Jobs by Peter Schiff

It's about what is seen and unseen:
Despite the understandable human tendency to help others, government spending cannot be a net creator of jobs. Indeed many efforts currently under consideration by the Administration and Congress will actively destroy jobs. These initiatives must stop. While it is easy to see how a deficit-financed government program can lead to the creation of a specific job, it is much harder to see how other jobs are destroyed by the diversion of capital and resources. It is also difficult to see how the bigger budget deficits sap the economy of vitality, destroying jobs in the process.
How the Government Can Create Jobs by Peter Schiff

Tea Partiers Highlight Media Neglect of Ron Paul

Wolf Blitzer skipped over Ron Paul on the issue of the Federal Reserve during last night’s Tea Party Debate on CNN.

While almost everyone else had their chance to speak about the Federal Reserve — none mentioned ending it — the American people where left to wonder what congressman Paul would do to the Federal Reserve as president.
The Media Neglect of Ron Paul (Part Two) | The Charleston Tea Party

What's a Blue Republican?

Answer: A Democrat that will support Ron Paul in 2012.

Progressivism produced "Rule by Experts"

The Progressive movement at the turn of the twentieth century—the doctrine from which the main current of modern liberalism developed—is sometimes erroneously viewed as an “anti-business” philosophy. It was anti-market to be sure, but by no means necessarily anti-business. Progressivism was, more than anything, managerialist.
Taylorism, Progressivism, and Rule by Experts | The Freeman

End the IMF

All IMF money comes from the taxpayers and central bank printing presses. So there’s the first charge against it: It’s financed through compulsion. That should shape our expectations about the agency.
End the IMF | The Freeman

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Why Ron Paul scares Rick Perry - The Hill's Pundits Blog

One of the cardinal rules of politics is "never attack down,” meaning a front-runner should never attack or respond to an opponent who is far behind. Yet that is what Rick Perry is doing. He is intimidated by Ron Paul, and responding to Ron Paul. Why? The answer is that Ron Paul is a true libertarian and a true conservative, while the latest version of Rick Perry, the man who once championed Al Gore, is a phony conservative and can't even pretend to be a phony libertarian.
Why Ron Paul scares Rick Perry - The Hill's Pundits Blog

Today I met Congressman Ron Paul

I told myself that I at least have to meet Ron Paul before he became president of the United States.

Rep. Paul's (R-Texas) Subcommittee to Explore Restoring Sound Money held a hearing today. It was there in the Rayburn building that I met him. He was very pleasant and was happy to sign my copy of End the Fed.

Take a look.

Monday, September 12, 2011

Tea party audience boos Ron Paul for explaining motive of al Qaeda | Raw Replay

“Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda have been explicit, and they wrote and said that we attacked because you had bases on our holy lands in Saudi Arabia, you do not give Palestinians a fair treatment,” Paul said before being interrupted by more boos. “I didn’t say that, I’m just trying to get you to understand what the motive was behind the bombings.”
Tea party audience boos Ron Paul for explaining motive of al Qaeda | Raw Replay

The (Real) Reason Why They Hate Us

GOP Presidential hopeful Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) was booed yesterday when he said the following:
“Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda have been explicit, and they wrote and said that we attacked because you had bases on our holy lands in Saudi Arabia, you do not give Palestinians a fair treatment,” Paul said before being interrupted by more boos. “I didn’t say that, I’m just trying to get you to understand what the motive was behind the bombings.”
It is therefore more important than ever to know why they hate us. Hint: It is not because the Muslim world hates our freedoms.

An expert explains:
According to Michael Scheuer, who headed the CIA’s bin Laden unit from 1996 to 1999: "In the long run, we’re not safer because we’re still operating on the assumption that we’re hated because of our freedoms, when in fact we’re hated because of our actions in the Islamic world. There’s our military presence in Islamic countries, the perception that we control the Muslim world’s oil production, our support for Israel and for countries that oppress Muslims such as China, Russia, and India, and our own support for Arab tyrannies."
Why They Hate Us

Forgotten Facts of American Labor History by Thomas E. Woods, Jr.

Just about everything that people think they know about labor unions and wage rates is wrong.

The standard tale that practically every student hears over the course of his education is that before the emergence of labor unions, American workers were terribly exploited and their wages were consistently falling. The improvement in labor's condition was due entirely or at least in large part to labor unionism and favorable federal legislation. In the absence of these, it is widely assumed, people would still be working 80-hour weeks and children would still be working in mines.

This oft-heard tale is, however, almost entirely false, and those parts of it that are true (the low standard of living that people enjoyed in the nineteenth century, for example) are true for reasons other than those alleged by pro-union historians, who see in them only confirmation of their prejudices against the market economy.
Forgotten Facts of American Labor History by Thomas E. Woods, Jr.

Imperial Mentality and 9/11

A number of analysts have observed that although bin Laden was finally killed, he won some major successes in his war against the U.S. "He repeatedly asserted that the only way to drive the U.S. from the Muslim world and defeat its satraps was by drawing Americans into a series of small but expensive wars that would ultimately bankrupt them," Eric Margolis writes. "'Bleeding the U.S.,' in his words." The United States, first under George W. Bush and then Barack Obama, rushed right into bin Laden's trap... Grotesquely overblown military outlays and debt addiction... may be the most pernicious legacy of the man who thought he could defeat the United States" – particularly when the debt is being cynically exploited by the far right, with the collusion of the Democrat establishment, to undermine what remains of social programs, public education, unions, and, in general, remaining barriers to corporate tyranny.

That Washington was bent on fulfilling bin Laden's fervent wishes was evident at once. As discussed in my book 9-11, written shortly after those attacks occurred, anyone with knowledge of the region could recognize "that a massive assault on a Muslim population would be the answer to the prayers of bin Laden and his associates, and would lead the U.S. and its allies into a 'diabolical trap,' as the French foreign minister put it."
The Imperial Mentality and 9/11 by Tom Engelhardt and Noam Chomsky

Blacks and Politics by Walter E. Williams

Japanese- and Chinese-Americans faced gross discrimination in our country, but when's the last time you heard them worrying about how many mayors and congressmen they have? Are they in a tizzy over the tea party's call for constitutional government, reduced spending and a balanced budget? By the way, Japanese- and Chinese-Americans have median family incomes higher than white Americans despite having no political power, even in areas where they are most numerous
Blacks and Politics by Walter E. Williams

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Perry: Social Security is ‘Ponzi Scheme'; Romney: It’s Not a Failure ‘By Any Measure’ | CNSnews.com

In 2010, however, the Social Security system ran a deficit, not a surplus. Social Security benefit payments equaled $701.6 billion, according to the Social Security Board of Trustees Report, while payroll taxes for Social Security equaled only $637.3 billion.
Perry: Social Security is ‘Ponzi Scheme'; Romney: It’s Not a Failure ‘By Any Measure’ | CNSnews.com

Ron Paul's Reagan

Matt Welch's thinking on this issue is aligned with my own (emphasis in italics mine):
Rick Perry and his supporters this week are firing back at Paul's Reagan-repudiating record, quoting from his 1987 resignation letter from the Republican Party and other comments from Paul's 1988 Libertarian Party run for president. These gotcha attempts actually bolster Paul's credentials as a limited-government conservative, and highlight an important libertarian critique of Reagan (and by extension, the modern GOP) that has mostly been washed away by decades of Republican nostalgia for The Gipper.
He goes on:
There's plenty more in there about inflationary monetary policy, the drug war, arms-for-hostages, insufficient tax reform, failing to abolish the Selective Service and various federal departments, and so on. Conclusion? "There is no credibility left for the Republican Party as a force to reduce the size of government. That is the message of the Reagan years."
Ron Paul's Reagan

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Ron Paul: Border fence could be used to ‘keep us in’ | Raw Replay

Never thought of that.

Ron Paul: Border fence could be used to ‘keep us in’ | Raw Replay

SF—Where Nudity’s Legal—May Require Buttocks Insulation for Sitting in Public | CNSnews.com

Odd.

SF—Where Nudity’s Legal—May Require Buttocks Insulation for Sitting in Public | CNSnews.com

Gary North on Christian Education (In 1995)

From a letter written to his ICE subscribers:
What does your child really need?

First, he must learn how to read early, so he will enjoy reading throughout his life. He must learn to read critically. This means he must also learn to write, for in writing, the student learns how others have communicated with him through the printed page. Reading and writing are complementary skills.

Second, he should gain a knowledge of the Bible. I prefer the King James Version, for these reasons: (1) the language is magnificent; (2) its unique phrases stick in the mind, making Bible study easier; (3) the Strong's numbers are tied to the King James, making serious Bible study easier, especially with a modern computerized Bible search program.

Third, he must master mathematics. Until there is a self-consciously Christian version of Saxon's math program available, we should go with Saxon, which emphasizes review and mastery. Fourth, anything else that interests him. Let him master a subject for the joy and experience of mastering it.

Christian education should be highly focused on a handful of topics: reading-writing, Bible, and mathematics. To force a child to take six courses per semester is both traditional and foolish if the child has not first mastered reading, writing, arithmetic, and the Bible. If he has mastered these, he can pick up the other courses in short order, such as by preparing through Advanced Placement exam cram courses.
Read the rest by clicking here.

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Self-Education: Graduate-Level Economics Education

For the most part, it's dirt cheap.

Graduate-Level Economics Education
Mises: Human Action
Rothbard: Man, Economy, & State
Rothbard: History of Money & Banking in the U.S.
Rothbard: History of Economic Thought
Rothbard: Mystery of Banking
Hazlitt: Failure of the "New Economics"
Hayek: Constitution of Liberty
Kirzner: Market Theory & the Price System
Kirzner: Capitalism & Entrepreneurship
Kirzner: Perception, Opportunity, & Profit
Kirzner: The Meaning of Market Process
Bauer: Dissent on Development
McCloskey: The Bourgeois Era (first 2 volumes)
Ropke: Economics of the Free Society
Many books can be found at the Mises Store.

Lew Rockwell: Freedom sometimes come in stages

It is true that freedom is not certain to bloom in the post-protest world. Sometimes freedom comes in stages. Sometimes a worse regime can replace a bad one. But it is always an occasion to celebrate when the tyrant is overthrown. It is always a blow for liberty – no matter that the brutal State in question is officially supported by the US government.
Lew Rockwell, For the Love of Liberty

P.J. O'Rourke on Public Schools: End Them, Don’t Mend Them

Enough, however, of outrageous statistics. Let’s generate some pure outrage. Here’s my proposal: Close all the public schools. Send the kids home. Fire the teachers. Sell the buildings. Raze the U.S. Department of Education, leaving not one brick standing upon another and plow the land where it stood with salt.

“Wait a minute,” the earnest liberal says, “we’ve got swell public schools here in Flourishing Heights. The kids take yoga. We just brought in a law school placement coordinator at the junior high. The gym has solar panels on the roof. Our Girls Ultimate Frisbee team is third in the state. The food in the cafeteria is locally grown. And the vending machines dispense carrots and kiwi juice.”

Close them anyway.
End Them, Don’t Mend Them | The Weekly Standard

The illusion of safety by Ron Paul- The Hill's Congress Blog

It is absurd to think police or government agents can protect 310 million Americans around the clock. ~Ron Paul
The illusion of safety - The Hill's Congress Blog

U.S. Debt Held by Public Tops $10T for 1st Time—Up 59 Percent Under Obama | CNSnews.com

U.S. Debt Held by Public Tops $10T for 1st Time—Up 59 Percent Under Obama | CNSnews.com

Congress should focus on disaster mitigation and private-sector solutions to protect lives and taxpayers

Congress should focus on disaster mitigation and private-sector solutions to protect lives and taxpayers

Ron Paul ad hits Perry for endorsing Al Gore - The Hill's Ballot Box

Ron Paul ad hits Perry for endorsing Al Gore - The Hill's Ballot Box

WCF Chapter One "Of Holy Scripture" Sunday School (Sept.-Oct. 2021)

Our text for Sunday School (also "The Confession of Faith and Catechisms") Biblical Theology Bites What is "Biblical Theology...